During one of the early economics classes at school, it was shocking to learn that the work of the most hardworking person in my family was considered uneconomic. This is still true across the world, comprising mostly women, but also including responsible men and in dire situations, young adults and children — those who run the kitchen, do so without the acknowledgment of economic appraisal.
The reason — the absence of monetary return or even value-based accounting.
That aside, for most bootstrappers, their first inspiration and reference in sound economic practices in the way their home kitchen was run. Subconsciously, their minds tend to follow the principles they saw in action at home, when dealing with enterprise-level decision-making.
People have compared enterprises to several grand experiences and endeavors — golf, soccer, chess, an automobile (and the third-world, bicycle)… the number of times one hears someone say “business is like a…”
The fact is, home-kitchen-running has all the functions of a complete enterprise viz. Research, Budgeting, Logistics, Procurement, Prototyping and Testing, Inventory Management, Process Maturity, Re-usable Frameworks, Competitive Analysis and Benchmarking, Development / Production, Packaging, Delivering, Customer Service, Relationship Management, Experience Management, and Feedback. (Human Resources and Payroll, of course, are glaringly absent.) Since the very nature of home-kitchen-running is that it has a daily impact cycle, home-kitchen-runners grow extremely efficient with time. Many of us will remember that one special meal, made of rice and some salt or pickle, and yet, it turned out to be one of the tastiest and memorable meals one ever had. (Not to mention the pampering hand-fed customer service that went with it.)
At a macro-level, if we look at the role of governance in an economy, it is not very different from the role of a home-kitchen-runner. To feed a hungry population, nourish it and empower it to create impact in the world.
If you want to get better at bootstrapping, or start the bold way of living for the first time, enter the kitchen and own up some outcomes from there.
Authored by Thub Guest Bloggers
Satya Prakash — Founder QDE and David Jairaj — Head of Marketing and Communication — QDE
